Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The Culture of Corruption lives on: “‘GOP Rep. John Doolittle’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in a federal probe into ties between Doolittle, his wife and jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.’ … The Sacramento Bee reported back in June that the feds had contacted as many as six of Doolittle’s former aides. The feds raided his Virginia home in April after he refused to plead guilty.”
* Ambassador Ryan Crocker, two weeks ago: “The whole premise, of course, of the surge was to … bring levels of violence down and keep them down so that there would be the time and space for political leadership to get on with the business of national reconciliation.” National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, yesterday: “It was really for two purposes. One, to get sectarian violence down, which was centered in Baghdad. And secondly, to try and take advantage of what was beginning to happen in Anbar provinces [sic] with local political leaders and tribal sheiks coming together to fight al-Qaida.”
* USAT: “The concern Levin voiced to Defense Secretary Robert Gates was fundamental: After four years of war, he feared that the Pentagon still wasn’t doing enough to protect U.S. troops — and wouldn’t, unless prodded by Congress. The fears appear to be well-founded, a USA TODAY investigation shows. Since the war began, members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans — repeatedly have forced the Defense Department to invest in body armor, order devices to jam signals from detonators used by insurgent bombers, and buy vehicles that top military officials initially deemed unnecessary.”
* According to Jeffrey Toobin’s new book on the Supreme Court, Justice David Souter was so disgusted with the high court’s ruling in Bush v. Gore, he nearly resigned. “David Souter alone was shattered,” at times weeping when he thought of the case, Toobin wrote. “For many months, it was not at all clear whether he would remain as a justice. That the Court met in a city he loathed made the decision even harder. At the urging of a handful of close friends, he decided to stay on, but his attitude toward the Court was never the same.”
* On a related note, Al Gore was royally screwed by the media in 2000, and he’s still not happy about it. I don’t blame him; I’m still not happy about it, either.
* First Lady Laura Bush refers to Karl Rove as “Pigpen,” the perpetually dirty character from Charles Schulz’ “Peanuts” comic strip, and considers him a “necessary evil.”
* The White House’s website indicated, as of last week, that the Office of Administration is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Now that there’s a controversy about seeking materials from the OoA, the White House has corrected the problem — by changing the website.
* Oh my: “Reporting on Fred Thompson’s Republican presidential campaign, National Public Radio’s Audie Cornish cited the ‘renown’ Thompson acquired for his role as Republican counsel on the Senate Watergate committee during Watergate, but her report did not mention Thompson’s own admission that he provided crucial information to President Nixon’s lawyer without authorization.”
* Comedy writing is really hard. Richard Cohen shouldn’t try it.
* The Hill: “A district court judge Thursday dismissed a case against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that would have compelled the agency to set rules for outside 527 groups. The ruling places the burden back on Congress to impose new constraints on the powerful groups before the 2008 election season begins in earnest.”
* On a related note, Daily Kos won a case today, with the Federal Election Commission announcing that the site did not violate FECA.
* Michael O’Hanlon should have quit while he was behind.
* Gary Kamiya: How Bush betrays Reagan — Bush idolizes the Great Communicator. But Reagan’s successes came because he didn’t follow his conservative ideology.
* Rock stars tend to die younger than non-rock stars? Who would have guessed?
* And finally, in talking to Robert Draper for “Dead Certain,” the president admits that he cries. “I cry a lot. I do a lot of crying in this job. I’ll bet I’ve shed more tears than you can count, as president,” Bush told Draper. Mr. President, with you in office, I’m sure you’re not the only one who’s been shedding tears.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.